Parliament of Georgia extends state of emergency till October 3

Today, the Parliament of Georgia has made a decision to prolong the state of emergency in those regions of Georgia, where Russian troops are still present, including the peacekeeping forces, till October 3, 2008. According to the earlier decision, all the territories of the country, where Russian militaries had been deployed, were awarded the status of occupied territories.

"Despite the ceasefire agreement, after September 8, Russian troops were removed only along the line Senaki-Poti, in other regions of Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, they continue oppressing Georgian citizens and provocations, making obstacles to delivery of humanitarian aid and arrival of representatives of international organizations," runs the today's statement as quoted by the IA "News-Georgia".

According to the RIA "Novosti", Moscow, in its turn, is anxious about the OSCE's refusal to go on coordinating the operational modality of additional military observers of the OSCE Mission in Georgia.

Andrei Nesterenko, official spokesman of Russia's MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), has stated that Russia is concerned of "the attempts of certain OSCE member-states to actually put the aggressor and its victim on equal terms." Mr Nesterenko has noted that Russia is scrupulously fulfilling all its obligations under the agreements achieved both on August 12 and September 8.

Anvar Azimov, Russia's permanent representative at the OSCE, has stated that "the stumbling-block is the issue of coordinating the responsibility zone of these OSCE observers in Georgia."

As he said, Russia, in particular, calls on to observe the decision of the OSCE Permanent Board of August 19, running that the observers' responsibility zone should cover the territory of Georgia that is adjacent to South Ossetia.

At the same time, the western countries insist that South Ossetia and Abkhazia should remain integral parts of Georgia. The decision to suspend consultations was adopted today by the majority of votes; in particular, it was supported by the EU, USA, Georgia and others.